In it, he envisions thousands of reasonably-priced housing units, office parks, a golf course, minor league baseball park, 100-lane bowling alley and entertainment complex — all in the heart of Dallas surrounding a massive San Antonio-style Riverwalk. A 1,300-acre Midtown Manhattan for Dallas, he posits.

The drive to recall Mayor Laura Miller sputtered to a temporary halt Monday, as organizers acknowledged that they had failed to collect the signatures needed to force an election.

These are the first words I wrote — on November 25, 2003 — as City Hall reporter for The Dallas Morning News.

The ones here will stand among my last.

Today is my final day in the office, reporting for the paper. I’ll soon head east, to Washington, D.C., where I begin a new career playing an old role: independent government watchdog.Continue reading →

Your daily dose of news and views from in and around Dallas City Hall:

• A new Dallas City Council, a new mayor pro tem and a new deputy mayor pro tem — all part of the council’s inauguration festivities, which also included a de facto state of the city address from Mayor Tom Leppert. Read our coverage here and here. More inauguration coverage from The Dallas Observer’sPatrick Michels and Sam Merten and KERA-FM 90.1′s BJ Austin.

• It appears that Brian Potashnik and his wife, Cheryl, are on the verge of agreeing to a plea deal in a Dallas City Hall public corruption trial that began Monday morning, just as the 2009-2011 Dallas City Council began its new session. Our own Jason Trahan reports that the Potashniks and their legal team did not show up to court proceedings Monday — an indication that they’re in the process of striking a deal with federal prosecutors. But former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and former Dallas Plan Commissioner D’Angelo Lee were indeed in court. More coverage of the first day of the trial, which included initial jury selection action, from Sandra Hernandez at KDAF-TV (Channel 33), BJ Austin at KERA-TV 90.1, KTVT-TV (Channel 11)’s Jack Fink, The Dallas Observer’sRobert Wilonsky and KDFW-TV (Channel 4)’s Shaun Rabb.

• The new Dallas City Council gets “trained” at 9 a.m. today in the council chambers. On tap: An overview of the council voting system, and primers on the Dallas City Charter, rules of procedure and ethics and campaign finance laws.

District 4 council member Dwaine Caraway is Dallas’ new mayor pro tem — first in line to the mayor’s office — after his council colleagues today appointed him to the position in a divided vote.

He defeated District 5 council member Vonciel Jones Hill 11 votes to four during the first City Council meeting of the 2009-2011 session.

“It’s a greater mandate to do even greater things,” said Caraway, who enters his second term and cited economic development, crime reduction and upcoming council redistricting among his chief priorities. “I’ll try to be an even better council person.”

The council also unanimously selected District 2 council member Pauline Medrano as deputy mayor pro tem.Continue reading →

At 2 p.m., the 2009-2011 session of the Dallas City Council will commence, with the only notable order of business at this first meeting being the selection of a mayor pro tem and deputy mayor pro tem.

Each council member receives one vote in selecting one of their colleagues for each position. The mayor pro tem is next in line to the mayor’s office, with the deputy mayor pro tem following.Continue reading →

No matter the economy or the multitude of problems its causing, Mayor Tom Leppert defiantly declared Monday that “there is no better place to be today than Dallas, Texas.”

And Dallas, Leppert said, will in coming years advance to become “the city by which all other great cities of this world are measured.”

His comments, made at Dallas City Council inaugural ceremonies at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, come at a critical time in city history, when the municipal government faces making extreme staffing and service cuts to balance its budget.Continue reading →

It took six minutes this morning for the Dallas City Council to accept the results of its June 13 election runoff, in which District 7 council member Carolyn Davis and District 1 candidate Delia Jasso prevailed.

And with that, Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia and District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky bid adieu to their council colleagues, ending eight years of service on the council body. They must step down because of term limits.

Next hour, the city will inaugurate the 2009-2011 Dallas City Council, which includes two new members in Jasso and District 13 council member-elect Ann Margolin.

Hundreds of dignitaries, city staffers, friends and family members are now filing into the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center’s main concert hall for the celebration.Continue reading →

When the Dallas City Council conducts its most contentious votes, Mayor Tom Leppert is all but assured of two outcomes: He’ll win, and he’ll do so with the support of several colleagues who rarely disagree with him.

At the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas government will usher in new era, inaugurating its 2009-2011 Dallas City Council. Mayor Tom Leppert will also deliver a de facto state of the city address.

Simultaneously, across downtown, Dallas government’s ugly past will be unearthed, as Dallas’ biggest political scandal in a decade hits the Earle Cabell Federal Building. Testimony in the trial of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, his associates and others is expected to expose sordid dealings to hide bribes from one of Texas’ largest affordable-housing developers, reports our Jason Trahan.

Unknown is whether officials at either event will allude to the other; Mayor Tom Leppert has been notably silent about the corruption trial — not that there’s terribly much for him to say about it, given that we was still working as chief executive of Turner Corp. when federal agents in 2005 raided the City Hall offices of Hill and former City Council member James Fantroy.Continue reading →